gfiles magazine

March 9, 2016

The cost factor

Transport
Ministry officials are said to be in a tizzy about what the surface of
roads in India should be like. This situation has come about because the
construction business is in recessionary mode. The cement industry,
particularly, is facing a crunch because of low demand. So, members of
the Manufacturers of Cement Association (MCA) met the Minister for Road
Transport, Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari, and requested him to
use a cement component in laying highways. Gadkari patiently listened to
them and then suggested they should meet National Highway Authority of
India (NHAI) Chairman Raghav Chandra. Currently, we learn, NHAI
officials are conducting a cost-benefit analysis. But everyone knows
there are two methods to construct a road: One, flexible pavement, which
consists of various layers of granular material with a layer of
bituminous materials on top. The other is rigid pavement, which consists
of cement concrete pavements laid on a well-prepared granular sub-base.
With the international prices of bituminous materials slumping by 25
per cent in February, the rigid pavement method is obviously more
costly. In addition, rigid pavements exert more wear and tear impact on
vehicles. In these circumstances, NHAI officials are keeping a discrete
silence as they don’t know what the Ministry would like. MCA leaders
are, meanwhile, knocking on the doors of NHAI, but there appears to be
no light on the road. g

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gfiles is the country's first independent magazine written, designed and produced for India's civil services—the vast and formidable
network of bureaucracies and public sector organisations that
provides continuity and stability to this nation's
governance.